If Target is made aware that there's been a switch and still keeps the figures on the pegs to sell them, they are just as guilty of fraud.

It's times like these I wish I had a good video camera so I could make a little youtube documentary showing the switched figures on the pegs, including audio of me calling the manager and letting him know, etc. It would be like Dateline 20/20.

Anyway, I think the Asset Protection guy may care a bit more than the manager.

I think kids will know a difference. Those figures are crap, bad paint, worse plastic, and come with 1/10th the accessories as real G.I. Joes. Wouldn't you be upset if you were a kid whose parents bought you that for your birthday or something, and then when you complained they thought you were just whining? Something needs to be done about this, we have to make an example of this Target. Get over there with your video camera alcinde. Use a small digital one because Target doesn't allow taping I think.

I can't believe I let myself get nailed by one of these loser no-life Swappers!

So, Last night at Target, I quick picked up the Lego Man Of Steel Battle of Metropolis set for my son's 7th birthday. $49.99. This morning, he and his brothers are unwrapping presents and he's SOOO happy to get his new Lego set. Meanwhile, I'm off doing something, but a few minutes later I find him on the stairs, crying, and he says "Something is wrong with my set." I go over to take a look and, oh yeah, All the bags have little holes and are filled with totally random Legos and minifigures... Deadpool body on some Wolverine legs, Clone helmets, Random parts from ships...actually quite a bit of minifigure body parts in there. All totally random. The real punch in the gut was that the instruction booklet was a totally beat up and ripped Chima booklet with ballpoint pen scribbles all over it.

Really, really depressing. Why are grown men (and yes, it's probably dudes) such baby children?!? My fault, I should have checked for the factory seal. I will NEVER AGAIN buy a Lego set without first looking inside. I should have taken a picture, but I was so mad, I marched it over to Target ASAP and got my son a new set. I explained the situation to them , so they wouldn't put that set back on the shelves, but I don't think the CS girl cared. She did say "Sorry", atleast.

Still, arghh! So mad. I got suckered!! It seems like it'd too easy to steal Lego bags out of sets. I don't know what they could do about that.

What I really think is: he's a newbie swapper--or a casual amateur swapper--that just found out about how to swap and return for the first time and he's getting his free Man Of Steel set and dumped all the random junk from his kid's sets . Seriously, any middle class American kid these days has TONS of HUGE plastic containers full of Legos and sets accumulating over many years, birthdays, Christmases, First Communions, whatever ...they probably have doubles and multiples of sets because of the constant gift-giving from relatives. Dude probably just scooped a bunch of random stuff into the bags. I think this because the mini-figures were all mix-matched like a little kid would do and I saw one with some "gunk" on it... Like a magic marker or some peanut butter or something. Plus the booklet was beat-up and scribbled on like a little child did it.

I know the economy is still rough, but jeez!

Then again, it could be a total ebay re-seller pro.

Seriously, my town has a big time collector/reseller population and terrible distribution so if anything is hot, it's impossible to find.

Maybe that Targets Asset Protection guy might be interested. Next time I'm in the store (if the switched figures are still there) I will ask to talk with him.

The problem is, Target doesn't care. They don't absorb the cost of any of the thefts, they just report damaged figures to Hasbro or Mattel, they get credit for it and they trash the figures. It's more trouble than it's worth to care about any of the thefts because it's not money out of pocket.